The semester is coming to an end, and it probably feels like two days ago that you just began! Assuming finals aren’t also in two days, we have some advice for getting you where you need to be to succeed. If you don’t already have a Firecracker membership, sign up here. We're also having a webinar demo covering how to use Firecracker for Finals this Thursday May 11 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, please join us!

We know that about 65% of Firecracker users will take the NBME Shelf exam for Family Medicine. This Shelf exam is unique in its scope: it covers all organ systems, all age ranges, and every common pathology. That represents a lot of material to absorb and retain while you’re running around the wards, caring for patients, and trying to get through your third year of medical school.

It's a busy time here at Firecracker. Our product team is hard at work building new features for use during dedicated test prep, and our content team is focused on creating as many CVs and board-style practice exams as possible. But we're not just hiding in the office. We're also getting involved in as many community engagement activities as possible. In particular, we're making Study Jams a reality on the international stage. With the help of some of our most engaged medical students, these events combine free food and drinks with some of Firecracker's best integrative content in a peer-led environment.

Firecracker is free - sign up to try our practice USMLE Step 1 exam and see where you're strong, where you're weak, and how you compare to other students: https://med.firecracker.me/signup

In the past year Firecracker has released 8 practice Shelf and Board exams - including a practice USMLE Step 1 exam. This week, to help students using these exams, we’ve released benchmarking: now in your results you can see how your performance compares to that of all other med students at both an aggregate and individual question level - so we can serve you a good snapshot of how your performance compares to that of other medical students actively preparing for USMLE Step 1:

Holidays are right around the corner, but before we can all kick back, stuff our faces, and enjoy a little too much together time with our families, we have to first get through those pesky finals. Many students have asked us how they should go about using Firecracker to prepare, so we decided to quickly share some best practices for using Firecracker for your upcoming finals. To follow this plan you need to be a Firecracker member, if you're not you can join for free here.

Today we’re excited to announce the release of the first of many significant updates to Firecracker MD and Firecracker DO centered around testing your mastery. Now, you can take one of several carefully created standardized exams to help prepare you for your classes, wards, and boards.

If you're not yet a Firecracker member you can sign up for free - instant access to over 2000 clinical vignettes to help you practice and prepare for USMLE Step 1. https://med.firecracker.me/signup

The team here at Firecracker is super excited to announce the introduction practice exams as part of our core product! And as part of this introduction, I’d like to explain a bit about our clinical vignettes (CVs), including the history of our CVs, how many we have, where they came from, who writes and edits them, what makes a good CV, how to integrate them into your studies, and much more. There is an insane amount that can be said about CVs, way more than can be written in a single post. So this is the first of many to come.

Did you ever join some kind of club and have to be initiated into that club? Well for medical school, anatomy is kind of like your initiation. Everyone has to go through it. It happens at the beginning of your first year. There are many unpleasant experiences associated with anatomy. For the most part, students are pretty excited when it’s over.

Welcome to Firecracker

Firecracker is an adaptive learning platform that uses amazing content coupled with spaced repetition to help medical students crush their exams. We offer programs for both individual students, and entire medical schools. If you'd like to learn more contact us at chat@firecracker.me.